Sho Baraka breaks down the “Travis” outro from “The Narrative”

Last November, Sho Baraka and Propanda’s “Spotlight Tour” hit Houston. The night of performance and discussion came just before the U.S. Presidential election and shortly after Sho released his fourth album titled The Narrative.

I spoke to Sho before he took the stage and had to ask about one part of the album that didn’t get covered in his grand, three-hour breakdown of the project on Forth District’s “First Spins” podcast.

Basically, I was curious about a skit that was included at the end of the song “Maybe Both, 1865.” The clip in question is a voice mail from a guy named Travis who asks Sho if they can meet and talk.

Travis’ words:

Yo, it’s Travis.
Hey man, it’s Friday morning.
I’ve been meaning to call you.
I’d love to get your take on some of these things.
I’ve been thinking more and more about the issues.
And I think it would be good to hear what you think.
I’m trying to make sense of some things,
And, I wanna make sure I have a better picture of what’s going on.
So, let’s meet.
Call me back and we’ll make it happen in the schedule.
Take care man.
Bye.

I wanted to know whether or not there was a specific event or story that sparked that skit.

Here’s what Sho Baraka told me.

It’s my life story of the type of people who want to have a conversation about race and the issues of our time.

Travis is a good friend of mine actually. But yeah, it’s usually middle-aged white men and leaders who are like “Hey Sho, come to my church” or “Come talk to this group of pastors.”

And at times it can just be exhausting because you feel like you’ll have these conversations, but then be like “Bro, nothing is ever changing. So when are you guys going to change your philosophies and methods in order to really address the issues if you really want to have these conversations?”

So it was kind of like a truth-ism, but also a bit of satire for those people who kind of understand the issues. It happens a lot.

And Propaganda isn’t the only person who has approached me about taking control over the way we have these conversations. Usually what happens is somebody wants to have you go to their organization and they’ll say “Hey, I want to pick your brain about something.”

So what I’m going to do is start going to where I want to go and say “If you want to hear me and my thoughts on this issue – come here.”

If you’ve followed his career, you know Sho has a lot of great insight to offer. Thankfully, Houstonians can take that in this weekend and see him perform songs from The Narrative with a live band (that includes our city’s own Nate “theBeatbreaker” Robinson and Vanessa Hill from Soulfruit).